The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to autostereoscopic displays and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to an apparatus and a method for reducing artifacts in autostereoscopic displays.
In recent years, there has been rapid improvement in graphics display techniques aimed at providing a perception of three dimensions and other optical illusions. Three dimensional images displayed on a two-dimensional screen using conventional display technology contain limited three dimensional cues such as obscuration, depth effect, and illumination effects. For enhanced three dimensional displays, special architectures depart from conventional two dimensional displays.
Common three dimensional (3D) displays, also referred to as auto-stereoscopic displays, provide 3D visualization without requiring the user to wear glasses or other devices. Of special interest are auto-stereoscopic displays that use optics such as lenticular lenses, a lenticular mask, and parallax barrier to direct a set of views to different angles. This type of displays is by far the most common in print as well as in digital displays such as computer monitors, mobile devices and recently also television sets.
Another type of product that provides a 3D visualization without requiring the user to wear glasses or other devices are lenticular printing articles. These articles are created in a process consisting of creating a composite interlaced composite image by interlacing various images, and attaching it with a lenticular lens arrangement, such as a sheet, to form a lenticular image article. When digitally processing the composite interlaced composite image, various images are collected are flattened into individual, different frame files, and then digitally combined by interlacing into a single final file in a process which may be referred to herein as interlacing. The lenticular printing can be used to create a dynamic image, for example by offsetting the various layers at different increments in order to give a 3D effect to the observer, various frames of animation that gives a motion effect to the observer, a set of alternate images that each appears to the observer as transforming into another. One of the most common methods of lenticular printing, which accounts for the vast majority of lenticular images in the world today, is lithographic printing of the composite interlaced composite image directly onto lower surface of a lenticular lens sheet.